Face of Betrayal, Lis Wiehl & April Henry

The easiest book review is two words: “Read this!” Soooo…this blog is going to be a bit longer because this book disappointed me. The mystery line of the story is about a young girl who disappears near her home in Portland. The story unravels the past leading up to her disappearance, and eventually reveals the cause and culprit. The main characters are three women (prosecutor, investigator and reporter) who work on the case.

I was excited about this book, but I was fooled by good marketing. I felt like I had read it before in actual news stories. I was hoping for more creative plot “twists and turns” as advertised. I was hoping to be surprised, and I wasn’t. And now I just sound like a complainer, but I felt the book lacked the sensory details that can make a good story come alive.

Because many of my reading buddies are much younger than I, a few scenes in this book prevent me from recommending it. Between an abusive boyfriend and an affair between an underage girl and older man, some scenes could have been left out. As I said before, they are elements common in the news. But it bothered me that they were presented neutrally, almost like news, and not as moral issues. The news is depressing. I enjoy books that deal with real issues, but in fiction I’m looking for an added entertaining, or inspirational, or educational spin. And life’s short, why not hope for all three?

Extra: Some similar books I’ve read are Randy Alcorn’s Deadline, Dominion, Deception series, and also recently, Sibella Giorello’s The Rivers Run Dry. They are also mysteries set in the Northwest, and – for me – were much more entertaining and thought provoking.

The Rivers Run Dry, Sibella Giorello

I need books like this for when the weather stinks. Here is a novel that takes you places--first, into the mind of Raleigh, a southerner in the Northwest, into the heart of Seattle, into the FBI, and of course, into a suspenseful and unpredictable mystery. I enjoyed the plot, the characters and the descriptions, but I think my favorite part of this book was all the unique metaphors. I've studied this type of writing, and it's harder than it looks. The descriptions are all her own - no clichés. Giorello's writing style is a distinct element that pulls you into the book to see what's going to happen and how she will say it.

Even though this is labeled Christian fiction, I was still pleasantly surprised that it contained many overt Christian elements. Raleigh's Christian faith keeps her from drinking, gambling, exploding in anger. She doesn't even flirt with her handsome coworker, who is kind of a jerk anyway. She goes to church, and brushes off her aunt's New Age mentality. The narration discusses the origins of the geography in Washington state from Creationist standpoint. This book was a relief and a lot of fun to read. I say relief because it seems like a lot of modern Christian fiction is just "clean" fiction. Rather, it's like secular fiction with the most graphic elements (hopefully) edited out. I felt that Giorello must have a genuine belief because her boldness stands out in this genre. That said, it is a gritty story. There is vomit, drug addiction, a creepy bad guy, and some suffering that doesn't really resolve itself. But there is also a strong message of hope--the Christian kind, of course--all the while acknowledging that resolution doesn't mean all of life's situations ending perfectly.